, 1887-10-20
The Brother Jonathan.

Recent finding of tha wreck of tic
Ill faicl steamer Bruthr:' Jonathan
wi,icn :Ernt down Twenty two years
/ ago, has revived Interest IN that great
disaster. The writer we'll remembers
the excitement ca#5ri at that time.
V cor Smith, then Collector of Cu5-
toms OF Puget Sound, with Il AL
quarters al Port Angeles, was among
/ ihusc who we..t ,iown. The vessel
/ was running cu;!stwi:c. She was
wrecked in July, 1865, with l4S pas
sengcrs and Il crew uf Is more. Sac
! WAS beam engine ship OF 1,220 tens
measurement and her machinery was
| the same that had been in Use in the
steamer Atlantic, wrecked on Fisher )
island in Long Island Sound III 1916.
She was Ill command of Capt. S. j.
DeWolf, with Elijah Mott as chief
engineer, and Joseph Benton, purser.
The third officer, Mr.. Patterson. was
the only officer saved. The sea was
very high and the ship was laboring
heavily, so DeWolf saw that he was
liable to burn up all his coal before
reaching Portland. He therefore de
cided to run back to Crescent City,
which he had left that morning, and
to lay there until the gale had abat-
ed. His ship was overloaded and al =
most helpless in a heavy sea. Sud
denly there came shivcring crash,
just after heading about, and III %
minutes later, nineteen survivors III
one out Of six boats, were all that
was left of the jolly party that had
left Crescent City that morning. A
story was current at the time that she
had struck on one of the numerous
small rocks between Point st. George
and the mouth of Rogue river, and
that her mast had fallen through her
hull which caused her to sink almost
Immediately. But as continuous
search was made for the wreck from
1865 TO date and no properly quipped
wrecking vessel had ever been able to
find it, there were not wanting those
who contcuded that the ship had
udu no IOCh) iLitib lltI IttNl
walking beam had broken the rock
shaft, thus falling into her hui! and
knocking the bottom out of her. A
like accident once befcii the Fail
river steamer Empire State Mr.
Patterson had been at work all night
at Crescent City, putting oat freight
and had lain down to rest some four
hours before the accident He came
on deck almost naked but got on his
heavy boots and broagi.t his boat
safely, with nineteen out .of twenty
one vino had got into her: into the
harbor of Crescent Ciiy. For two
weeks later the beach from Rogue
river 20 Trinidad was suewn with
dead bodies and wreckage matter.
The treasure Un the ship was about
$3.50, $50 in charge of Wells, Fargo Il
Co. about $4,000 IN charge of tbs
purser. making $4,000 in gold.
besides what was in the hands of tho
passengers In addition to this, Mai
L. W. Eddy, U. S. A., was on his way
to Vancouver, Walla Walla and other
posts in this part of the world, with
about $4,000 to pay off the troops.
For the past twenty years, every now
and then, somebody has startled the
community with sensational story
about the finding Of the wreck of the
Brother Jonathan. In 1872 the str.
Coquille was out some weeks in
fruitless search for the Jonathan.
Four years later another search was
made by the same vessel under diff
ferent ownership, but with no better
luck. Not less than twelve organized
searches have been made and not a
dollar recovered; and if Capt. Gee
has really found the wreck, there
cannot be much left of it, for she was
a rotten ship the day she went down.
Her steering wheel stands in Darby
i Sayille's saloon IN Crescent City, a
souvenir of ono of the most awful
shipwrecks ever known, the only
worse beng that of the Pacific in
November, 1875, when 272 persons
out of 274 were drowned off Cape
| FIattery,